Anastasia - Dramione Story Prompt

April 1926 - Russian Railway, Grebņova, Latvia

Mia fiddled boredly with her necklace, watching out the window as they passed the Russian border into Latvia. They'd been on the train about five hours now and all was calm. Theo had spent the majority of that time writing different things in different books (occasionally stopping to readjust his glasses) and Draco had been wandering the train, gathering information from here and there about stations the Red Army came on board at, talks of a neutrality treaty with Germany, and the conflict between Cartel des gauches and Raymond Poincaré in France. He came back occasionally to check that everything in their cabin was ok but otherwise spent his time elsewhere. And Mia was just fine with that. 

The two of them had been getting into it over every little thing. First, Sirius had taken up residence on the seat next to Theo (Mia suspected it had something to do with the fact that the man was obsessed with sneaking her dog treats and head pats) which meant Draco was relegated to the seat next to her and away from the window. When he'd brought it up to her she'd just told him to move the dog (easier said than done when the pup wasn't afraid to bite). 

"You know, if you're going to insist on traveling with that mutt you should at least train him. He's a menace," Draco had told her.

"You're the only one he has a problem with, he's sweet to Theo and I. Maybe if you didn't constantly threaten to throw him out the window or taunt him with snacks and then not give them to him he'd be kinder to you," she'd retorted. Theo had smirked at the two of them before turning back to whatever he was writing.

Then, he'd had a problem with her posture. Mia'd grown up in a state-run orphanage. Not exactly the kind of kid who'd get sent to finishing school or learn proper posture and social graces. But blondie expected her to be more sophisticated than she actually was right from the get-go.

"Sit up straight, why are you always slouching? And would you stop playing with that filthy thing around your neck? Remember you're a Grand Duchess."

"How is it that you know what a Grand Duchess does and doesn't do?"

"I make it my business to know a little about a lot and a lot about a little," he'd replied vaguely. "Look, I'm just trying to help. Let's face it, you've got quite a bit to learn in a short amount of time. We wouldn't want to overlook something small like this."

"You really think I'm royalty Draco?"

"You know I do."

"Then stop bossing me around." He looked taken aback at that, flushed face turning to his friend for back up but Theo just shook his head and ignored the two of them. "Look, I agreed to travel to Paris with you and I agreed to meet with the Dowager Empress so we could see if I really am her missing granddaughter. But that doesn't mean I want to or will change everything about who I am just to make you happy along the way." He hadn't liked that answer. He scoffed at her and stormed off mumbling under his breath and slamming the sliding door with a low thud.

A little while later he'd come back to apologize.

"Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot earlier."

"Well, I think we did too," she'd agreed without bothering to lift her nose out of the book she was reading (a copy of Mitya's Love that had been left in their car by the previous passengers). "But I appreciate your apology."

"A-Apology? Who said anything about an apology?"

"Well, isn't that what this is? You apologizing for belittling me earlier?"

"No, no, no. I was just saying that we should try to get along a little better. But I stand by my comments from earlier, if you want to appear more-"

"Look, Draco," she stopped him and set a finger in her book to look him in the eye. "Just stop talking now. Anything you say is only going to upset me."

"Fine, I'll be quiet. I'll be quiet if you will," he begrudgingly agreed as he crossed his arms and relaxed into the seat.

"Alright," she gave him an 'are you kidding' look (since she'd been sitting there silently reading before he'd come back anyway). "I will."

"Fine."

"Fine." They sat in silence for a little while, Mia back to her book and Draco staring out the window. "Do... Are you going to miss it?" She spoke quietly, peeking over the edges of her novel. 

"What? Your talking? Why would I miss that?"

"No!" She felt like she'd go cross-eyed at his constant sarcasm. "Russia." He waited a few beats before looking back to the window.

"Nope."

"But it was your home," she probes quietly. 

"It was a place I once lived. End of story," he spoke in a tone that had an edge of anger and sadness in it that made her want to pry just a little more.

"Well, then... You must plan on making Paris your true home."

"What is it with you and home?" He snapped, a hard look in his eyes and a tick in the set of his jaw as he leveled her with a glare. 

"Well, for one thing, it's something every normal person wants," she huffed in anger, a bit offended that he seemed to think home was something terrible or akin to a fleeting blip in his life. She stood up, setting the book on the seat to leave. "And for another thing- Would you just-" she fought past his legs to get out of the seat (a difficult task as they took up most of the tiny walking room in their car). Fed up she huffed in annoyance and stood on the seat to get around him. "Agh, forget it!" Draco stood up now that she'd passed him, glaring at her for getting shoe prints on the upholstery. The door opened and revealed Theo and Sirius (coming back from a trip to the tualet). "Thank goodness it's you. Would you please just remove him from my sight?" She glared at the grey-eyed blond as he mimicked her behind her back. Theo rolled his eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. 

"Now what have you done to her?"

"Me? It's her!"

"Ugh!" She cried in indignation before storming away. How was any of this her fault? She'd been quietly reading before he'd come in with some half-assed apology that wasn't an apology. This was most certainly not on her.

"Seriously Draco? Would you quit with the bad attempts at flirting? You're losing to her. Terribly, I might add." Theo told his friend as he showed him the 'Shots Fired' book he'd been working on. Three tallies under Draco to twenty-nine under Mia.

"Flirting? With that skinny little brat?" Draco was agasp that his friend would think so little of him. Sirius growled from Theo's arms before leaning up to lick the brown-haired man's cheek (a look suspiciously like a glare on its face when he turned back to look at Draco). "Have you lost your mind? She's not my type and we have a business here. I know better than to risk our money on some zhenshchina from nowhere." He turned and stormed off in the opposite direction of Mia as Theo shook his head in amusement.

Outside of Time and Space - Greed, Hell

"They've arrived," Voldemort had a gleam of happiness in his voice as he watched his magic cauldron. The hellspawn he'd created with dark magic acted as his eyes as they reached the train carrying the lost princess. The swarm, which had previously broken free from the realm he'd been trapped in for the last ten years, shot into the engine and through the open car windows. 

"What's the plan now master?" Wormtail asked cautiously as he wrung his tail between his flesh and silver fingers. "There's a lot of people on that train, how are those things going to know who they're looking for?" The green creatures sank into the consciousness of the engineer and several inspectors, taking over their bodies. The shells looked almost no different, save for the vacant expression on their faces and the faint glow in their eyes. 

"They'll know," Voldemort chuckles darkly. "Trust, me. They'll know."

April 1926 - Russian Railway, Grebņova, Latvia

The door to their car swung open as Draco let himself back in. He started grabbing their luggage and nudged Theo with his knee for help. 

"Time to go, we're moving cars," he declared as he glanced over his shoulder.

"Is something wrong?" Mia asked, concerned by his flustered appearance. "Why are we moving cars?" She grabbed Sirius and one of the suitcases of clothes the men were loaning to her as Theo led them out of their carriage door and towards the rear of the train.

"They're doing some kind of inspection, I'm not quite sure. But something is definitely wrong," Draco answered as vaguely as possible, not wanting to reveal that he'd seen a couple get shoved to the ground by a ticket inspector who just kept walking. Not the most abnormal thing, but when another inspector came up to ask what was going on, the first one had turned around and shot the man without a warning or an answer. Honestly, Draco was surprised his travel companions hadn't heard anything. They walked until they came across the cargo train, nearly the caboose and holding a few suitcases it was a great place for them to try and wait out whatever was playing out inside. "We'll just get off at the next stop and switch trains," he told the others cheerfully (hoping Theo had already caught on to how serious the situation was from the fact that they weren't around other passengers anymore). 

Suddenly, the train lurched forward. The three in the back fell over as the vessel picked up speed. 

"Why is it suddenly going so fast?" Mia wondered aloud, watching as the trees outside got blurrier and blurrier. 

"Uh, guys?" Theo called from the window, his brown eyes widened in horror. "There's smoke billowing out of the locomotive. I think the engine might have exploded!"

"Just what are they putting in that thing to make it explode?" Draco cried, rushing to the window to confirm what his friend was saying. 

"Oh my god!" Mia cried, eyes set on the tracks ahead. "We're never going to make that turn going this fast. This train is gonna crash!" They all shared a look of horror as the cargo doors opened. 

"T-ick-ets?" An inspector gurgled out, nearly incomprehensible over the whistle of the wind and the wet rasp of his voice. Draco went rigid, subconsciously maneuvering himself in front of Mia and Theo.

"Sorry officer," Theo smiled charmingly at the man. "We left them back in our seats. We'll go get them for you in just a momen-"

"By chance, would you know of a way to stop the train? We seem to be going a bit fast and there's an awfully sharp curve up ahead." Mia interrupted. The inspector looked at her, cocking his head with hazy, unseeing eyes. Soon enough a second man joined him. 

"T-ick-ets?" He asked in the same vocal cadence as the first man. Mia, Draco, and Theo shared a look.

"As we told him, they're-" Theo started before a third man joined the inspectors at the door.

"T-ick-ets?" He asked. 

"Something is very, very wrong here," Mia whispered to her companions. They'd noticed it too; the way the men spoke just barely over a whisper with broken words. How they stood stock still even as the train hurdled down the tracks and the wind whipped their clothes around so harshly it looked like they'd be decapitated. How they'd been there for several minutes now but not one of them had blinked even once.

"T-ick-ets." The first inspector spoke more forcefully now, all three taking a step further inside and simultaneously raising their pistols. Mia squeaked in terror, clutching Sirius more closely to her chest (he'd been growling since the man had arrived but now he was barking his little head off). 

"On the count of three run to the caboose," Draco told them under his breath (missing the nod both Theo and Mia gave him). "One,"

"T-ick-ets," the second inspector spoke once more, all three cocking the hammer on their guns.

"two," Draco whispered. 

"T-ick-ets." The third demanded as Draco spoke his last number.

"Three!" He used the suitcases he was holding to cover them as the inspectors fired their weapons, bullets flying into the leather-bound clothes and books as the travelers ran for the last car on the train. Mia pulled over a stack of luggage as they passed it and Theo swung open the last door in haste as the inspectors fired another round into Draco's now holey suitcase.

"Quickly, in here!" Theo cried as he pulled them into the final car, the steal door slamming shut behind Draco as he passed the end of the cargo train. 

"Theo, give me a hand! We have to disconnect these cars or they'll just keep coming!" Draco screamed over the wind. They had to be going almost 100 miles an hour now, and it felt like they were still gaining speed. Three loud bangs came from the other side of the door and Mia winced as she noted the indents where the bullets had hit. Theo and Draco began pushing on the coupler, trying to get it apart as they hurdled down the tracks. She looked around for anything that might be at least a little bit useful. Glancing past the parking brake (which they'd definitely be using as soon as they got these damn cars disconnected) she eyed a box of dynamite. Grabbing a stick without thinking she brought it over to the boys who were arguing over the frozen coupler. 

"Would this help?" She hollered to them. They looked at her and the dynamite, looked at each other, and turned back to her. 

"That'll work," they said simultaneously. Another round of bullets hit the door behind them as they set the stick into the groves holding the train together and all three bounded backwards to hide behind some boxes after they lit the fuse.

"What do they teach you in those orphanages?" Draco wondered aloud. The explosion knocked them all back onto their butts but succeeded in getting them away from the rest of the train and those weird men trying to kill them.

"Great! Theo declared as they helped each other stand, the wind blowing their hair in every direction and chill setting in as they faced the winter air head-on. "Now what? We're still going too fast!"

"I saw a parking break over there!" Mia called back. They rushed over to it, Mia squeezed it as hard as she could and put all of her weight into getting it to move. "It's not working!"

"Here, let me help," Draco declared as his hands wrapped around her own, squeezing even harder as they shoved it toward the ground. "Theo, we need a little bit more weight on this thing, get over here!" Draco hoped that the three of them combined would be enough to do it, otherwise, they'd be screwed. They shoved and shoved until finally, the brakes engaged. 

"Yes!" Theo cheered too prematurely, the brakes sparked and ground down the tracks before breaking off completely. "Gavno! Now what?" They scrambled to find something else that could slow them down enough for them to jump (because it was looking more and more like that was their only option). 

"There's some chains over here, if we can get them hooked on the track maybe that'll help slow us down?" Mia called to the others. They rushed over, Draco grabbing it and running to the front of their damaged car. 

"Theo, gimmie a hand over here!" He called as he lay down on the floor, starting to shimmie under the train car to attach the large hook on the chain to their vessel. Theo moved to help before tripping over the broken brake pieces. Mia, who was closer to the front, decided a hand was a hand and offered her own. "I asked for Theo!" 

"Just take my help before we all die!" He attached the last of the hook before carefully taking the chains Mia fed to him from above. Counting to ten in his head he dropped the other side of the chain (a second hook on this end as well) into the tracks and grasped Mia's hand for help up. The track splintered and spit upwards into the bottom of the train. "And to think that could have been you," Mia mumbled under her breath in shock.

"If we live through this, remind me to thank you," Draco told her as they gathered what remained of their luggage. The caboose they were on was slowing down but it wasn't going to stop before they ran into the remnants of the train that had crashed ahead of them where it had derailed. "Brace yourselves, this is our stop." They waited as long as they possibly could before joining arms (Sirius in Theo's coat jacket) and jumping into the snow off the side of the train. Sputtering and gasping for air as they landed in the cold they turned to watch as the train car they'd just jumped from crashed into a fiery heap, smoke and flames reaching up towards the sky. They shared a look, happy to be alive. 

Outside of Time and Space - Greed, Hell

"I hate trains," Theo spoke through the haze of Voldemort's cauldron. "Remind me to never get on a train again." Voldemort seethed in rage, shoving his cauldron over as he screeched in dissatisfaction. 

"How could they let her escape? They had her within their reach and she still got away?!" He picked up a rock and threw it at the overturned pot. 

"You're right, master. It's very upsetting. I guess this reliquary is broken," Wormtail agreed. Picking up the talisman and throwing it over his shoulder to match his maker's tantrum. 

"Be careful with that!" Voldemort shouted angrily, barely managing to catch it before it crashed to the floor. He leveled his henchman with a glare. Grabbing the flying rodent he squeezed him into his fist. "I sold my soul for this, Wormtail. My life, my very existence, depends on it. And you nearly broke it!" His grip tightened with every sentence. 

"I get it, I get it!" The rat squeaked. "You break it, you bought it. I'll remember sir!"

"See that you do. You miserable little rodent."

"Oh sure, blame me. I'm an easy target." It mumbled under its breath.

"What was that?" Voldemort questioned, annoyed.

"Nothing master, just wishing I could help in some way. Maybe I could go after the girl. I'd scratch her face and maybe even kick her, sire."

"Oh, no Wormtail. I have something much more evil in mind. Something a little more... enticing. Something really cruel."